Much is said about our environment and the need for us all to be aware of the impact today’s decisions have on our future. In our facilities, we are always conscious of the need to conserve and demonstrate a caring attitude towards our environment.

Our Environment
We subscribe to the three “R’s” (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in ALL divisions. It starts with our construction sites and their ability to recycle as much material as possible, from one site to another, right through to our restaurants who recycle cooking oils. In our hotels, we ask our guests to participate in helping to reduce excessive laundry requests.

With the combined recycling efforts of our laundries, restaurants, and energy committees, we are constantly trying to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Annual reviews of our energy consumption, waste removal/recycling, and in-house initiatives are conducted. New ideas and suggestions are distributed throughout the corporation for the sole purpose of minimizing our impact on both the local and global environment.

The HAC Green Key Eco-Rating Program is a voluntary platform designed to recognize hotels that have taken significant steps towards sustainability through participation in environmental programs, best management practices, training programs, and engineering solutions that have benefited the environment and the local community. For a Four Green Key rating, each of the hotels have demonstrated national industry leadership and commitment to protecting the environment through its wide-ranging policies and practices in the areas of energy conservation, water conservation, solid waste management, community outreach, and building infrastructure to name just a few. They have mature environmental programs in place that involve management, employees, guests, and the public and have shown substantial and measurable results.

Sandman’s commitment to sustainability and protection of the environment for future generations has always been one of our company’s core values. We believe our guests will benefit from knowing the hotel they have chosen is doing its part in trying to minimize an impact on the earth.

Revelstoke Mountain Resort is excited to announce the addition of an 11-acre terrain park for the 2015-16 season. Work is already underway clearing the park area which will run directly under the Stoke Chair.

When complete, the park will be nearly 450 metres long and 100 metres wide. Including more than 20 jib features, the park will also have a range of jumps that will be expanded throughout the season.

After getting great response to a ‘teaser park’ built last spring, Revelstoke Mountain Resort’s Vice President Peter Nielsen said this is the highly-anticipated next step.

“Our guests have been asking for a terrain park for quite some time, so we are really thrilled to have the resources and team in place to build a full-size progression park,” Nielsen explained.

“We are designing the park to appeal to a wide range of ages and abilities, and I think it is going to be a great addition to our winter offerings.”

Along with expanding the legendary groomed runs Revelstoke is known for, the Resort has also invested in increasing the existing grooming fleet to enable maintenance standards necessary for a high quality terrain park.

Sandman Hotel Group, The Kamloops Blazers Hockey Club, and the City of Kamloops have announced a 10-year naming-rights partnership rebranding the downtown arena as The Sandman Centre.

The Sandman Centre will host all Kamloops Blazers games and many other major events including concerts, the Subway Super Series, Hockey Day in Canada, and the 2016 Women’s World Hockey Championships.

“We are elated to enter into a partnership with Sandman Hotel Group. Their presence throughout Canada is well-recognized,” commented Director of Sales and Marketing, Dave Chyzowski. “Sandman Hotel Group is already one of the Western Hockey League’s premiere sponsors. We are very excited for this new long-term partnership.”

The Sandman Centre officially opened its doors in the fall of 1992 as the Riverside Coliseum, previously known as Sport Mart Place and over the last 10 years as the Interior Savings Centre.

“We’re extremely excited to be part of the city’s arena. This is an incredible sports, cultural, and entertainment venue offering fantastic games, events and concerts to the City of Kamloops and the surrounding communities,” said Taj Kassam, President and COO of Sandman Hotel Group. “Sandman has been a proud citizen of the City of Kamloops for the past five decades, and this partnership allows us to show and share some of this pride.”

As long-time corporate residents, Sandman opened its first Kamloops’ hotel in 1968 and its second in 2014. Together with the Kamloops Blazers and the City of Kamloops, Sandman Hotel Group looks forward to the first home game of the season on Saturday, September 26th against the Kelowna Rockets.

“We’re proud to continue our long-standing relationship with the Blazers and look forward to this collaboration with Sandman over the next 10 years,” commented Kamloops Mayor Peter Milobar. “This partnership brings with it the promise of many exciting entertainment opportunities to be hosted at the new Sandman Centre.”

We are pleased to announce the grand opening of Moxie’s Grill & Bar at Sandman Signature Kamloops Hotel!

The Kamloops’ Moxie’s concept is a small inviting interior that is the perfect setting for a neighbourhood gathering. The 5,227 square foot building opened at the end of May and encompasses a total of 140 seats inside with a beautiful 698 square foot indoor patio adding an additional 42 seats.

Disa Ottosdottir designed this more rustic space boasting layers of different textures, including reclaimed wood boards, paneled millwork walls, old world cement tiles, rustic brick, and tufted leather upholstery.

The island bar and open concept kitchen allows for interaction and eye contact with our Moxie’s team and our guests. The floor plan uses a combination of banquettes, free standing tables, and booths, so there is something for everyone.

Originally published by John Lanchester, National Geographic, June 2006

Why do we fall in love with soccer? What happens?

At some deep level, the reason soccer snags us is that good soccer is beautiful, and it’s difficult, and the two are related.

A team kicking the ball to each other, passing into empty space that is suddenly filled by a player who wasn’t there two seconds ago and who is running at full pelt and who without looking or breaking stride knocks the ball back to a third player who he surely can’t have seen, who, also at full pelt and without breaking stride, then passes the ball, at say 60 miles an hour, to land on the head of a fourth player who has run 75 yards to get there and who, again all in stride, jumps and heads the ball with, once you realize how hard this is, unbelievable power and accuracy toward a corner of the goal just exactly where the goalkeeper, executing some complex physics entirely without conscious thought and through muscle-memory, has expected it to be, so that all this grace and speed and muscle and athleticism and attention to detail and power and precision will never appear on a score sheet and will be forgotten by everybody a day later–this is the strange fragility, the evanescence of soccer.

It’s hard to describe and it is even harder to do, but it does have a deep beauty, a beauty hard to talk about and that everyone watching a game discovers for themselves, a secret thing, and this is the reason why soccer, which has so much ugliness around it and attached to it, still sinks so deeply into us: Because it is, it can be, so beautiful.

The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup is finally here!

Canadian Living magazine went behind the scenes with the Canadian national women's soccer team. From superstitions to pre-game food to the musicians they rock out to (you won't believe who!), here are the secrets to team Canada's success.

How do you celebrate a win?
“Usually by singing Celine Dion … After one of our big wins last year, or a couple of years in the Cyprus Cups, we had the stereo system in the locker room and we popped in Celine Dion and started singing at the top of our lungs. And that’s usually, as a team, what we do. If anybody walked by they’d think: What a bunch of crazy Canadians. I can’t sing worth anything, but I am singing at the top of my lungs.”
– Goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc, 31 years old, from Maple Ridge, B.C.

“A lot of dancing, music … (and, after a tournament) Celine Dion’s Power of Love, that’s a good one.”
– Forward Melissa Tancredi, 29, Hamilton, Ont.

“Usually in the locker room we end up singing some kind of Celine Dion song … You can thank Karine LeBlanc for that one.”
– Forward Christine Sinclair, 27, from Burnaby, B.C.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten from a coach?
“Just to be confident in my own skill and my own ability and just to believe in myself. As a girl growing up you’re not expected to be boisterous or look into yourself and be who you are, it’s always like ‘stay in the back, be a team player.’ For a coach to come up to you and say ‘you’re better than you think you are,’ and to push it out of you is the best advice I’ve ever gotten.”
– M.T.

The team’s pre-game rituals
“Music is a must. And, for me, when I put my shin guards on and my cleats, and even when I get my ankles taped, it’s always left side first …”
– M.T.

More of the team’s pre-game rituals
“Left to right: you’ve gotta put on everything from left to right (when getting dressed for the game). And definitely say a prayer. I always say a prayer right before I enter the field and during the national anthem.”
– K.L.

“Pre-game it’s usually plain, simple pasta. Especially with an Italian as a head coach, she’s all about the pasta and the crostata before a game.”
– C.S.

“Actually a lot of us have been taking these goo packets, which are supposed to be a lot of simple sugars right before we play and they taste like chocolate icing, so they’re delicious.”
– Midfielder Diana Matheson, 27, from Oakville, Ont.

Post-game snacks
“Post-game, right away we have Parmesan. It’s gonna sound weird to people but Parmesan is what I look forward to. Parmesan is the first thing we eat in the locker room, as weird as that sounds. I’m a cheese-lover, too, so it works.”
– M.T.

“Certain members of our team are obsessed with Parmesan cheese. I’m not quite there: It’s hard for me to want to stick a brick of Parmesan cheese in my mouth after a game!”
– C.S.

As a Canadian owned and operated company, with hotels in both Canada and the UK, Sandman Hotel Group is excited to cheer for both Team Canada and Team England. Who will you be cheering for?